From Ball Gym to the recently named Scheumann Stadium, many of Ball State University's buildings carry the names of key contributors to the university. As with many colleges across the country, the building-naming process remains a vital part of Ball State because it connects students with the university's history and provides a tradition for the campus.
"It kind of gives a character to the campus," said Don Park, vice president for University Advancement.
Throughout Ball State's history, buildings have traditionally been named in recognition of a person's accomplishments. In recent decades, however, a decrease in state funding for academic facilities has caused financial contributions to play a bigger role than ever before in the building-naming process.
"The university has had to find other creative ways of providing money," Park said.
NAMING PROCESS
The university won't let just anybody have a building named after him.
To receive such an honor requires a key contribution to Ball State and careful consideration from the head honchos of the university, but the Board of Trustees makes the final decision.
"They can name whatever they want, whatever they want," Park said.
For names in honor of an individual when no financial gift is involved, a proposal must include how the potential honoree has achieved distinction and how that reflects upon the university, said O'Neal Smitherman, vice president for information technology. Park said a person providing a proposal should also provide letters of support.
"The more support that comes in with one of them, the better opportunity they might be approved," Park said.
For names involving a monetary gift, naming is evaluated on the significance of the contribution and on a case-by-case determination, Smitherman said.
Besides naming buildings after individual contributors, naming buildings after companies is also a possibility. To Park's knowledge, the only place on campus named after a company is the H.H. Gregg Center for Professional Selling, housed within the Department of Marketing.
In general, naming a building after a company requires special caution because corporations are more likely to undergo changes, such as failing or becoming acquired.
"Those really get sticky, and we really approach those very carefully," Park said.
Another issue is that, with any business, the possibility always exists that somebody will not like it, Park said. Looking at a corporation's reputation and stability are thus vital to making the right decision, Park said.
But even after a building is named, the Board of Trustees still reserves the right to remove a name from a building if necessary in case the name would come to embarrass the university, Park said.
"We've never had to deal with that, which is a good thing," Park said.
RECOGNITION OF ACCOMPLISHMENTS
During John Pruis's time as president of Ball State, his mark on the university was evident.
Pruis, who served as president from 1968-1978, helped establish special programs and foreign language houses. He helped establish the Whitinger Scholars program, John R. Emens Scholars and Martin Luther King Jr. scholarships. He helped establish undergraduate research grants.
So it's no surprise that Pruis Hall would be named after him.
"I would think you would guess I'd say it was an honor," he said.
The vast majority of Ball State's buildings are named after people, particularly retired faculty, who have made outstanding contributions to the university, Park said.
Many residence halls, for example, are named for respected professors, said former Ball State President John Worthen, for whom Worthen Arena was named.
Only a few buildings on Ball State's campus do not carry a person's name, though they have the possibility of being named any time, Park said. Primary ones include the Art and Journalism Building, the Administration Building, North Quad, West Quad, the Architecture Building and Teachers College.
The first building to be constructed and named after someone was Ball Gym, named for the Ball family, Park said. The Ball brothers, the founders of Ball Corporation, were also instrumental in the creation of Ball State University and Ball Memorial Hospital, which were named after them.
Besides Ball Gym, other buildings on Ball State's campus have been named in honor of the Ball family, such as Lucina Hall, Elliott Hall and Woodworth Hall.
Throughout Ball State's history, the Board of Trustees has also honored past presidents who hadn't had buildings named for them at the time. Such presidents include Pruis; Richard Burkhardt, who served as president from 1978-1979, and Robert Bell, who was president from 1981-84.
Worthen said he learned in June 2000 during his retirement dinner that Ball State's Worthen Arena would be named to honor his contributions to the university. Worthen helped raise $44 million in fundraising, endowed three chairs and created 14 distinguished professorships.
In spite of his many accomplishments, Worthen did not expect a building to be named after him, he said.
"It was a great honor, but it was a complete surprise," he said. "I had no idea it was going to be done ... It was a capstone of my 16 years of service in the institution."
FINANCIAL CONTRIBUTIONS
Only in the past 15 years have financial contributions played a role in the naming process for buildings at Ball State, Park said.
Financial contributions have become essential for generating private support for public universities, as well as private universities, to be able to survive and provide quality education for students.
"It really is becoming more a necessity because general assemblies of various states had to cut back on the funds they are giving their universities," Worthen said. "The institution needs the funds, and the naming opportunities are just one way to recognize donors and stimulate private giving to public education."
He said legislatures have found it difficult to continue their annual contributions to public universities, especially when taxes aren't generating the kind of revenue they had in previous years.
"They don't have the money, and they can't give it if they don't have it," Worthen said.
Although Emens Auditorium was the first building built basically from private gifts in the early '60s, Irving Gym was probably one of the first whose naming was tied to financial contributions of $2 million from the Irving family of Marion and Greenfield, Park said.
The rule of thumb for financial contributions is that a contribution has to be about half the cost of the building, he said.
John and Janice Fisher, for who the new football training complex was named last fall, have been the largest single individual donors in the history of the university, he said. They have donated $8 million since the 1970s.
MOVING FORWARD
As construction continues for several major projects on campus - such as the Communication Media Building and the new residence hall east of DeHority Complex - no official decisions have been made on what to name them, Park said.
Only casual conversations have taken place, he said.
"I've seen nothing come forward on it," Park said.
Overall, however, the naming of campus buildings will remain a key tradition at Ball State. More than ever before, it will remain a vital way for the university to provide many campus facilities the university wouldn't have otherwise.
And as always, it allows key figures in the university's history to leave a lasting legacy on the campus.
"It adds some history to a campus and kind of ties together some of the various generations that have gone there," Park said.
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